The French Chic Formula for Everyday Style a la Emmanuelle Alt

Emmanuelle Alt Makes Cool French Chic Look So Easy, so can you!

If you start out with poor ingredients, no matter how many spices you add, the dish doesn’t work… well, at best, it could be just passable.

But if there are a few very special ingredients, the result can be superb!

I’ve been observing the very covetable, easy-going style of Emmanuelle Alt for some time as she is one of my poster girls for pulling off everyday élan in an attainable, distinctive and fuss-free way.

Emmanuelle Alt attends the Jean-Paul Gaultier show as part of the Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2011

Recently promoted to editor in chief of Vogue Paris, “It is such an honour for me but also a great pleasure to land at the helm of Vogue Paris, a magazine which I know very well,” she says in the telegraph.co.uk.

What’s most interesting is the relatable way that Alt carries herself and the ease in the way that she wears her better than basic basics that are iconic of a busy modern working woman and mom. Just Google images of her to see.

It’s perfectly undone French cool with a play on classics.

And that kind of casual nonchalance is what trips up so many of us.

So I’ve studied the perfected “unstudiedness” of Emmanuelle Alt and have noticed a formula to her stylish simplicity.

Granted, she is tall and lean and there’s no doubt that, like it or not, that type of figure is easier to dress. But it is also the way she carries herself with confidence and poise that anyone can master. It’s not about the labels, although there are some major ones, but it’s more about how the clothes flatter her.

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There’s a non-obvious, non flashy sexiness to her style… the polar opposite of the Kardashian sisters. It’s about self-assurance and clothes that can be worn again and again. And most important, clothes that don’t wear you!

Even her little girl masters the classic French Chic elan

Let’s do the math on how I see Emmanuelle Alt’s fashion formula…

+Something structured, like a well-cut peak lapel modern classic blazer.

+Something easy, like an undone, drapey T-shirt, perhaps even silk.

+Something lean, like leather or dark skinny jeans, or a micro mini and dark tights that mimic the same proportion.

+ Feminine heels, either the Isabel Marant side bow pumps, or over-the knee suede boots to counterbalance the rocker edge.

= The Result is the perfected proportion of easy simplicity with a downtown edge.

A structured jacket over well-worn jeans

And as far as beauty goes, her hair is a natural brunette, her light tan appears earned rather than sprayed on, and the makeup is barely visible only to enhance her features, if it is there.

Her look is neither garish like a Los Angeles celebutant or heavy-handed like a self-conscious fashionista piling on the trends, it is just right, don’t you think?